


this and that, or in which the author attempts soulmate drabbles

by okayserasera



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Drabble, F/M, Gen, Platonic Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-09
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-20 11:47:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8247622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okayserasera/pseuds/okayserasera
Summary: “Be safe.” As always, though now it was a pathetically common utterance, the words—the ones also scrawled across Tenten’s right knee—had startled her to the point of everything stopping, even on that battlefield. Every time someone had said them, the constant pit in her stomach dropped in a way that was not because of the shruiken and kunai flying above her head.





	1. last words (nejiten)

**Author's Note:**

> soulmate mark is the very last words your soulmate says to you

“Be safe.” As always, though now it was a pathetically common utterance, the words—the ones also scrawled across Tenten’s right knee—had startled her to the point of everything stopping, even on that battlefield. Every time someone had said them, the constant pit in her stomach dropped in a way that was not because of the shruiken and kunai flying above her head.

 

But the person speaking the words this time was Neji—beautiful Neji who she had loved since she was a child, stubborn Neji who refused to love a woman that could bare another Branch child, strong Neji who would never dare leave her even if he couldn’t love her. So what had her words, bitter and so tired of this war and the plain unrequited _longing_ , been? “I will. Don’t go breaking my heart by dying while my back is turned.”

 

(but then he had)

 

For a second, at her saying this, Tenten thought she had seen the bastard stop, his mouth form the words she longed for, wanted, _needed_ : “I love you, too.” But Neji had said nothing and just turned away, face invisible to those without Byakugan eyes. When he was leaving, Neji had not said a damn single thing.

 

(and then he had)

 

Later, when there is enough of a pause in the death and the fighting to retrieve the body to be burned as Hyuga’s do, Tenten finally sees her words on Neji’s wrist.

 

The bastard had fucking known. Couldn’t even have said he loved her as well.

 

(and now he has died)


	2. first words (leesaku and grumpy sasuke)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> soulmate mark is the first words your soulmate says to you

When Sakura’s mark appears at age eight, it does not bear the promised, expected “Hn.” The horror! She had thought she was going to marry _Sasuke-kun_ and he was going to tell her that her forehead is not-at-all large and even lovelier than Ino-pig’s!

 

And what her mark says is not suave or cool and ruins all the surprise of guessing: “My name is Rock Lee. Your name is Sakura, right? Please be my girlfriend! I vow to protect you with my life!” **_Who_** _even says that when he is meeting someone for the first time?! Sasuke-kun would **never** say something so uncool_ , Sakura thinks. Then again, Sasuke-kun doesn’t ever seem to say much of anything. Well, perhaps Sakura can still be Sasuke-kun’s friend? Sakura promises herself that she will let the Uchiha wunderkind down gently.

 

Sakura vows to better herself so that she can give this Rock Lee character a piece of her mind when they meet. Sakura is a career kunoichi that don’t need any man to protect her. Obviously, she will have to be the competent one in the relationship because her soulmate is apparently an _idiot_ who goes around telling strange girls he has just met that he loves them. Somewhere, in the depths of her subconscious, the Inner begins to growl. Sakura cracks her knuckles.

 

…

 

Uchiha Sasuke blinks slowly. Is this even happening?

 

“And, you see, Sasuke-kun,” the strange pink-haired girl finishes saying, “that is why we could never work out. We will never date as much as it may pain you. I see you more as a Brother.”

 

Sasuke twitches and readies himself to lunge. How _dare_ she?!! Mention That Man’s name, reject him from their non-relationship when he doesn’t even know this overgrown flamingo’s name—wait, that doesn’t matter anyways—the girl mentioned his _brother_! No one has mentioned Itachi since that night! This will not stand! Sasuke feels the murderous, twitchy impulses he does whenever he thinks of Itachi. The pastel-colored termagant before him is going _down_.

 

Sakura’s heart breaks as she sees the former love-of-her-life so obviously in anguish over not being able to be her future husband. Even though she can no longer heal Sasuke-kun’s hurt better with her kisses, she can still console him with her hugs. Also, since Ino-pig has decided to be a poop-face and shun her for no longer going on the fanclub’s biweekly Sasuke Reconnaissance Missions, Sakura will just have to make do with what is in front of her. And what is right in front of her is—

 

“Sasuke-kun,” Sakura announces loudly as she wraps her arms around a struggling Sasuke, “I feel like we’re going to be very good friends!”

 

“H-hnnn??” Sasuke splutters as he tries not to panic and think, _She’s touching me—cooties!_ Did she just say that they are going to be—

 

“Best friends! Cha!” Sakura happily announces. Why can’t she just stalk him like the normal ones?

 

…

 

Four years later, Sakura meets the love-of-her-life with a hick-kick to his crotch and then announces, “Yes!! But I’ll be doing the protecting and the green’s gotta go right now, Shannaro! On Wednesdays, we wear pink!”

 

Lee’s eyes begin to water and he is not sure whether from it is the prospect of never donning his beloved emerald garb on Wednesdays again or the murderous yet brilliant green eyes glaring down at him. Love (and youth) is an amazing yet ineffable thing.

 

All the while, a rose-clad Sasuke—otherwise known as Haruno Sakura’s unwilling platonic life-partner—pouts and thinks, _I got rejected for this?_


	3. lightbulb marks (kushifuga)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> soulmates have marks that glow like lightbulbs when they meet their other soulmate for the first time ... this pairing is pure crack

Uchiha Fugaku, fourteen and the next Grand Ruler Supreme of the Clan Uchiha, realizes that he has met his soulmate as he raises what is left of his nose from the pavement that the ketchup-haired Iwa refugee has been grinding it into. “Kushina, no! Bad Uzumaki! Sit!” Fugaku hears a gently chiding voice call as his attacker is pulled off of him.

 

Somewhere in between the relief of _awww that killer-tomato-from-outer-space-in-human-form has stopped trying to squash me_ and the stunned _asdfghjklasdfghjkl_ at the extremely pleasing way Uchiha Mikoto’s facial features happen to be arranged, Fugaku notices the mark on his wrist has gently begun to glow.

 

Looking at the foaming ginger and the angelic Mikoto, Fugaku makes the informed choice. Besides, his father has warned Fugaku repeatedly about his attraction to dangerous women after that Thing With Tsume that Will Forever Remain Unmentioned. And the foaming ginger in question _beat_ Fugaku most brutally just for conveying his deepest sympathies for the loss of her beloved hometown of Iwakagure, so it’s not like that would have gone anywhere anyways…

 

“Hello,” Fugaku says with what his father’s lackeys assure him is his most smoldering look—a look that Inuzaka Tsume has also compared to a sad pug who has been hosed down and left out to dry after a bout of diarrhea—and smirks, pointedly ignoring everything except Mikoto.

 

At this, the foaming ginger begins to foam more. “Stop doing the Smolder at ‘Koto like, you Uchiha pretty-boy, dattebane!”

 

Mikoto feels a chill in her bones as she sees the male in front of her change his expression to something resembling a grimace. Perhaps he is constipated? Does Kushina think that boy with the face of a withered pug is _attractive_? Wait, is he—? There has been some talk that the Uchiha clan heir falls in love with anything that threatens to give him lasting brain damage. Well then—Mikoto tightens her hold on Kushina and asks hesitantly, “Who are you?”

 

“I’m your soulmate, of course,” Fugaku informs Mikoto, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from the rabid Uzumaki. Rabies is quite common in Iwa, which is where the Uzumaki are from, you know.”

 

The rabid Uzumaki in question freezes, muscles tensing under Mikoto’s hold before lunging. “The Uzumaki are from _Uzushio_!! Not Iwa, dattebane!! And I have problems with rage—not rabies. Now _die_!”

 

Fugaku has a moment to admire the redhead’s legs as they spiral through the air and promptly drop-kick him in the throat. Fugaku, in a surprising display of competence in the presence the fairer sex, manages to retaliate with a nasty bite to Kushina’s inner knee before he drops like a stone. Kushina possessively tosses a limp Fugaku over her shoulder. Half-feral, half-triumphant, she snarls, “And you’re _my_ soulmate and future husband—not hers—you, you lecher!” Drooling and unconscious Fugaku slung over her shoulder, the foaming ginger then exits.

 

Mikoto’s eyes widen and flicker from the now-shining mark on Fugaku’s to the matching one on Kushina’s collarbone. Mikoto has heard tell that knocking one’s soulmate unconscious and then dragging them off to meet the parents is an ancient Uzumaki mating ritual. _Oh, oh, oh,_ Mikoto thinks and winces in sympathy (for Fugaku or Kushina or the pair of them for being paired up together she knows not).

 

“Please never procreate,” Mikoto whispers after the retreating couple. “Think of the future generation. Think of the children.”

 

Six years Uzumaki-Uchiha Itachi is born with his father’s questionable social skills, his mother’s fiery temper and red mane, and all the prodigal skill he would have had if Mikoto had been his mother. Ever the intelligent woman, Mikoto decides to cut her losses, get the heck out of dodge, and promptly runs off with Tsume who is at least clever enough to run the other way if Fugaku tries to give her the Smolder.


	4. name on wrist (itachi & sasuke)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> your soulmate's name is on your wrist and changes colors depending on the bond
> 
> can people be called platonic soulmates if they just really, really hate each other (at least on Sasuke's part) where they once cared for each other or what do you even call this??

Sasuke knows what it reads even if the characters have not been able to be read in years. Not that it matters much after all, anyways. Sasuke does not need to read it to know his heart because, after all, to him, only one thing matters. And, for years, Sasuke has mourned the one who bears the name on his wrist as if he was dead.

 

After all, throughout the years, the skin around Sasuke’s mark has burnt from pale as bleached bones to black as putrid flesh. They say that is what happens when soul-bonds slowly die, but Sasuke knows the bond has been dead all this time. Besides, if the mark hadn’t darkened by itself, Sasuke would have burned it raw and fetid by ( _ ~~as~~_ ) himself. Sasuke does not need nature to tell him these things that he has known for years.

 

Still, when Sasuke shoves the blade into the other’s flesh, he feels as if he is the who has been dying all this time.

 

Still, despite it all, when Sasuke sees the blackened mess of his name on Itachi’s now-unmoving wrist, Sasuke does not cry. It does not matter now anyways. The years have been proof enough of that.


End file.
